Random thoughts on the procedure to become a Christian, Syrian Christians

I have two granddaughters. Both had been baptized shortly after birth. The Confirmation (a sacrament of the Church) of the elder one was last month and the First Communion of the younger girl last Sunday. It was while attending these functions that the question came to my mind – when does a person really become a Christian?

At the outset I must explain that I am a Syro-Malabar (the second largest Rite in the Catholic Church) Christian from Kerala and this writing could be influenced by the practices and teachings of that denomination. There are, however, similarities among the major organized Churches in the matter of accepting members into the fold.

In several non-Christian communities, birth decides the religion of a child. It is assumed that the baby belongs to the religion of its parents. In Christianity, only when a child receives baptism it is accepted into the community as a Christian. In the modern Church this function is held when the baby is a month old or so. Of course, at that point of time the infant is unable to realize the significance of the function.

But the godparents who would be present and undertake the responsibility of being the child’s spiritual guardians answer, on behalf of the baby, the questions the priest asks at the baptism. These include queries like ‘Do you renounce Satan?’ The answer by the godparents is of course, ‘Yes’ irrespective of whether they understand the theological aspects or not. Once the baptism ceremony is over, the infant is brought up as a Christian.

The next major step in the spiritual ladder of a Christian is receiving the Eucharist or the Holy Communion. This is a sacrament where consecrated bread is consumed in commemoration of the Last Supper. This has to done with purity of body and mind. The Church teaches that confession absolves one of the sins committed and thereby cleanses the mind.

Normally a child is given the Holy Communion for the first time when he about seven to ten years old. The Church considers that to be the age of reason or moral responsibility. Whether the child understands its implications or not he has to confess to a priest before receiving Communion. And once the Eucharist is received, the boy or girl concerned is bound to obey all the rules of the Church.

But it would appear that even after receiving the Eucharist the person is still not a full-fledged Christian. There is one more Sacrament, ‘Confirmation’, before one becomes ‘a true soldier of Christ’. At this ceremony, according to the teaching of the Church, the Holy Spirit bestows on the recipient several gifts that would help him to lead a true Christian life. This Sacrament is given when a person is around 15 years of age by either the Bishop or a senior priest authorized by him. Surprisingly, Confirmation does not seem to be taken very seriously these days.

In the original Malabar Church the procedure was different. What is referred to as ‘Malabar Church’ is the community that is believed to have been founded by the Apostle St. Thomas, and its descendants. After the Portuguese practically subjugated it starting from the 16c CE, the unified Malabar Church became truncated and today there are several denominations - Syrian Catholics, Jacobites, Orthodox, Mar Thoima etc. They are generally referred to as Syrian Christians of Kerala, or St. Thomas Christians, or Nazranis.

In the Malabar Church Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation were held when the recipient was well past puberty, say, at the age of 16 or 17. Usually the person’s wedding too followed shortly thereafter. Here the obvious difference was that in this system one accepted Christianity as an adult. It was with the Portuguese intrusion that infant baptism was introduced in the Malabar Church.

Child baptism was permitted by the Universal Church only from the 6c CE. What is interesting here is that when the Church policy changed in other parts of the world, the Malabar Church continued with the original practice of adult baptism till 16c CE. In my opinion, this is another proof of the antiquity of Christianity in Kerala. The Malabar Church remained an isolated community with hardly any meaningful interaction with the churches elsewhere.

Nevertheless, it had a sound theological basis. Unlike the Churches elsewhere, from the early days the Malabar Church believed that there was salvation outside the Church, that a man who lived according the rules of his religion would attain ‘moksha’ (salvation). That was why there was hardly any missionary work by the Malabar Church. It effectively led to a position that being a Syrian Christian was a matter of birth.

Here the question arises why did then St. Thomas travel to India and convert people to Christianity. The Apostle is claimed to have landed in Kerala in 52 CE. He would have left on this journey a few years before that. It would appear that his departure for Kerala was before gentiles too were accepted into Christianity; originally only Jews had the privilege Therefore his initial target for spreading the Word would have been the Jewish communities which, according to historians, were in Kerala long before Christ.

It is possible that later on local gentiles were also taken into the fold. This could explain the claims that the Apostle converted some Brahmin families. It is doubtful whether 2000 years back there was a sizable Brahmin presence in Kerala. But there could have been an elite set of local people sufficiently educated and knowledgeable to engage St. Thomas in debates. After all, they were involved in trade with many nations. Quite possibly, some of them accepted the new religion. That was a period when Kerala was a haven to all communities.

The label ‘Nazrani’ also indicates the antiquity of the Malabar Church. The name ‘Christian’ was coined by the Apostles at Antioch in the seventh decade of the Christian Era. Till then the followers of Jesus Christ from Nazareth were known as ‘Nazrani’. When St. Thomas established the Malabar Church, its members also were called Nazranis, in all likelihood initially by the Jews and the Arabs who were present in Kerala.

The Western missionaries who reached Kerala with the Portuguese and subsequently too, unfortunately, did not understand the ethos of the Apostolic Malabar Church. Their endeavour to westernize the Nazranis went on for three centuries and, in the process, much was lost. The once unified Malabar Church today lies divided into several denominations.

Related posts:

History of conversions to Christianity in Kerala – an overview

Vedas, Syrian Christians